In this bulletin:

• NATO to lead U.S. troops in Afghanistan
• 3 NATO troops hurt in Afghan bombing
• Taliban "practically defeated in south," UK Commander
• The Afghanistan Triangle
• "Musharraf responsible for bloodletting in Afghanistan"
• Pakistani spy agency under fire from all sides
• Press Release, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Kabul, September 30, 2006
• Hillier admits victory in Afghanistan is elusive
• Locals support continued Afghan mission
• Afghan government may take drug war to skies
• Taking on the Taliban means reckoning with the tribal codes of honour and opium trade
• British troops in secret truce with the Taliban
• Ghazni retention Dam on schedule
• Iran to stretch ironstone exploration into Afghanistan - MehrNews.com
• Japan's new PM wants to extend Afghan coalition support
• Afghan restorers train in Italy
• New video shows 9/11 hijackers in Afghanistan

NATO to lead U.S. troops in Afghanistan - By JIM KRANE Associated Press October 1, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan - America's direct control of military operations in Afghanistan will dwindle to a single air base within days as the NATO alliance assumes a nationwide command that places 12,000 more U.S. troops under its authority, a spokesman for the alliance said Sunday.

The expansion will consolidate military command under top NATO leader British Lt. Gen. David Richards and phase out the role of U.S. Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, whose troops will be transferred to NATO, said Mark Laity, an alliance spokesman in Kabul.

Of 40,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, only 8,000 U.S. troops will function outside NATO control: those tracking al-Qaida terrorists or involved in air operations, Laity said. The overall level of American forces will remain around 20,000.

"In a few days, on a date yet to be declared, you will see the completion of the steady expansion of ISAF," the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, Laity said.

The NATO expansion into the east wasn't expected to happen for a few weeks. The alliance's troops took command of southern Afghanistan just two months ago and have struggled to stem escalating violence.

A forthcoming NATO order will give the exact date of the handover that places 12,000 U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan headed by U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley under alliance command.

The NATO takeover caps an already historic expansion of missions for the largely European alliance that was created as a Cold War bulwark against the Soviet Union. NATO has seen 45 soldiers killed since arriving in August 2003. Its combat role in southern Afghanistan is the largest the alliance has ever undertaken.

"It is a big deal," Laity said. "We've got an unprecedentedly complex mission here. In some areas it's heavy combat. In other areas it's law and order. And it includes everything in between."

The Taliban have staged an unexpected resurgence and stepped up attacks, triggering major battles that have left more than a thousand dead in the past few months.

"I don't believe the Americans are trying to extricate themselves. They're trying to share the burden with their allies," Laity said.

The move leaves Eikenberry's role in doubt. ISAF spokesman Maj. Luke Knittig said Eikenberry may remain in Afghanistan but under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy.

"He won't be in our chain of command," Knittig said. Eikenberry "may work with the U.S. ambassador. But no decision has been made," said Knittig, a U.S. Army officer with NATO.

The command consolidation under NATO confines direct U.S. control to a single chief enclave: the sprawling American base at Bagram. A U.S. Army helicopter unit based at Kandahar airfield also will remain under American oversight, Laity said.

U.S.-operated prisons and interrogation centers at Bagram will remain under U.S. command, while NATO will continue to transfer its detainees to Afghan police.

3 NATO troops hurt in Afghan bombing

Kabul (AP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a NATO convoy in Kabul on Monday, wounding three soldiers and three civilians, officials said.

The bomber was on foot and jumped in front of a NATO military convoy in eastern Kabul, said Ali Shah Paktiawal, a senior police official.

The blast comes days after another suicide bomber killed 12 persons and wounded over 40 outside the Afghan Interior Ministry in the capital.

"I saw an American four wheel drive entering Kabul and suddenly a guy who was standing next to a pump station ran toward the vehicle and detonated himself," said Sayid Rahman, 22, an eyewitness. "That vehicle was damaged and they managed to flee from the area," Rahman said.

Three NATO-led troops received "minor injuries" and were evacuated to a nearby military hospital, said Maj. Luke Knittig, a NATO-led force spokesman. He would not disclose the nationalities of the soldiers injured. Three other civilians were injured, Paktiawal said.

The attack occurred on the road frequently used by troops in the capital and the body of the bomber lay alongside two unexploded hand-grenades, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said.

On Sunday, a two-hour long clash between insurgents and police in the eastern Paktika province left two militants dead and four wounded, said Sayid Jamal, the governor's spokesman.

The bodies of those killed were turned over to the village elders while those wounded were being questioned by police, Jamal said.

Separately, a hand-grenade was thrown at a mosque in neighboring Nangahar province late Sunday, wounding seven people who were praying, said Ghafor Khan, spokesman for the provincial police chief.

Five persons were detained for questioning as authorities try to establish a motive for the attack, Khan said.

Kabul 'suicide blast injures six'

BBC News / Monday, 2 October 2006 - A suicide bomber has attacked a Nato military convoy in the Afghan capital Kabul, wounding three soldiers and three civilians, the alliance says.

An Afghan policeman said the bomber leapt in front of the convoy detonating explosives strapped to his body. On Saturday, a suicide bomber killed 12 people in the Afghan capital.

Correspondents say suicide attacks have become increasingly common in recent months - a tactic which anti-government insurgents have learnt from Iraq.

Taliban "practically defeated in south," UK Commander

KUNA 10/02/2006 - LONDON - The Taliban in parts of southern Afghanistan has been "practically defeated," the senior British commander in the country said Monday.

Brigadier Ed Butler, Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, acknowledged in an interview with the commercial TV station "GMTV" that the conditions under which troops had been fighting were austere," but said there were signs of optimism.

Emails from soldiers describing the harsh conditions in the country appeared in some British newspapers over last weekend, including reports that they had been forced to drink dirty water when drinking water ran out.

But Brigadier Butler said the views of a minority of soldiers had been picked up by the media, which did not reflect the opinions of the majority, and insisted that morale remained high.

"We would acknowledge it has been pretty bloody and conditions are austere but what has been under-estimated by the Taliban is the sheer resilience, resolve and courage of the British Armed Forces," he said.

"It is important to note that we have practically defeated the Taliban in northern Helmand for this year." "People are turning towards institutions of Government for the first time in 30 years and reconstruction and development projects have already started." "It has been tough, it has been austere and it has been conducted for the past six months in the harshest conditions I have come across but we have not run out of supplies," he added.

"I remain very humbled by the morale of my force. It remains sky-high. Plenty of people are quite fatigued after six months of very hard fighting but they have done an outstanding job and they really have made a difference to the ordinary people in Afghanistan," Brigadier Butler concluded.

The Afghanistan Triangle - The New York Times - 10/01/2006 By David Rohde

SOMEWHERE along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the Taliban leadership and their Qaeda allies must be pleased.

When the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan visited the United States last week, they got into an ugly public spat over who was to blame for a Taliban resurgence that has killed hundreds of Afghans this year and shaken confidence in Afghanistan's new government.

There was Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, accusing Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan of failing to crack down on the Taliban. Mr. Musharraf struck back, saying Mr. Karzai was behaving like "an ostrich" and ignoring problems in his own land. Finally, President Bush played host at an unusual White House dinner for the two, trying to soothe tensions and promote a united front against the Taliban.

"We've got a lot of challenges facing us," President Bush said as the two leaders stood silently at his side. "All of us must protect our countries, but at the same time, we all must work to make the world a more hopeful place."

The two leaders' public feud increases already growing pressure on the Bush administration to deal with criticism of the American-led effort to stabilize Afghanistan, which until recent months was seen in bright contrast to the problems in Iraq. Members of Congress, former administration officials and experts argue that missteps by the United States and its allies squandered an early opportunity to bring order to Afghanistan so it could be more completely rebuilt. Stabilizing the country remains possible, they say, but it will now be far more difficult.

"I think the mission continues to be doable," said James Dobbins, a former Bush administration special envoy to Afghanistan. "But it's going to be a longer, harder, more expensive mission by virtue of the fact that we did not seize opportunities."

But what can be done? The issue is not just a matter of American troop levels, Afghan officials and American experts say. Or of Afghan warlords, once so powerful. There are three critical problems today: the weakness of Afghan security forces, a rampant opium trade and allegations that Pakistani officials turn a blind eye to Taliban activity in their territory.

Those three problems are wrapped up with a fourth: a creeping skepticism among Afghans and Pakistanis about the seriousness of the American and NATO commitments to stay in Afghanistan. The more it looks as if the Americans will leave, the harder it is to gain villagers' cooperation against the Taliban. Farmers become less willing to give up their profitable opium crop. And — perhaps most important — Pakistanis anticipate the day when their old allies, the Taliban, can again be their proxies to counter Indian influence in Afghanistan.

American officials discount such dire scenarios. They say the American effort in Afghanistan has been and continues to be a success. The current violence, they contend, is the result of a move by NATO troops and an increasingly strong Afghan central government to extend their authority into remote areas that Taliban fighters and drug traffickers have used as havens. Taliban attacks are largely centered in the country's south, they say, and will be defeated.

"In recent months, the Taliban and other extremists have tried to regain control, mostly in the south of Afghanistan," Mr. Bush said Tuesday in a joint White House press conference with Mr. Karzai. "We've adjusted tactics and we're on the offense to meet the threat and to defeat the threat."

But several members of Congress and American experts on Afghanistan said the United States needs to make a grand gesture soon, like doubling American reconstruction assistance. Over the last year, they point out, the United States cut aid to Afghanistan by 30 percent and handed over security in southern Afghanistan to NATO troops.

"Something dramatic" is needed, said Barnett Rubin, a New York University professor and Afghanistan expert. "To convince people that we really mean it. That we're really committed." The country's police present one such opportunity, cited by Mr. Karzai himself. In a meeting with reporters and editors at The New York Times on Sept. 21, he said the failure to create a professional Afghan police force was a central mistake in the early post-Taliban period. He said police training still must expand.

"We would like to get much more support for the training of the police from the United States and our allies," he said. "Where we failed was to focus in time on having a police force."

In 2001, Afghanistan's 80,000 police officers were a poorly equipped hodgepodge of Soviet-trained officers, veterans of the anti-Soviet jihad and gunmen loyal to local warlords. Seventy percent were illiterate.

In 2002, the United States promised to train a new Afghan army and Germany promised to retrain the country's police. But German officials dispatched only 40 police trainers and focused on developing a core of 3,500 skilled commanders at a reopened police academy. Some foreign military units conducted short training courses outside Kabul. But the tens of thousands of officers outside Kabul received no systematic training until 2004, when the United States opened seven regional training centers.

Opium cultivation, now exploding, is another sore subject. Last month, the United Nations announced a record 6,100 metric ton crop, 50 percent higher than the 2005 yield. Afghanistan now produces 92 percent of the world's opium poppies, or raw heroin. And in some parts of southern Afghanistan, American officials say, drug traffickers have formed an alliance with the Taliban.

One advocate of a steeply increased anti-opium effort is Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, who offered an amendment this summer calling for $700 million in additional Defense Department funding for narcotics eradication in Afghanistan. The Republican-controlled Senate passed the measure. But when the bill reached a conference committee, the amount was cut to $116 million for all of Central Asia, according to Mr. Schumer."You cannot win one of these wars by just paying attention to the military side," the senator said Friday. "They don't seem to understand that." He also has called for an increase in reconstruction aid to Afghanistan.

Beyond those more familiar problems, though, there are lingering questions about Pakistan and the Taliban, made more pointed by a sense that the United States may eventually abandon Afghanistan, as it did after the Soviets were driven out in the 1980's.

Seth Jones, an Afghanistan analyst with the RAND Corporation, said the United States must revamp its approach to Pakistan even as it works to counter an increasingly successful Taliban propaganda campaign that portrays the United States as trying to eradicate Islam from Afghanistan.

Mr. Jones and other analysts said Pakistan allows the Taliban to continue to operate on its territory because it sees the group as a useful tool to counter the growing influence of its archrival, India, in Afghanistan. Pakistan supported the Taliban in the 1990's in its civil war against an Indian- , Russian- and Iranian-backed Northern Alliance. After the Taliban was driven out, it was that same Northern Alliance that took power in Kabul. Now, with the American commitment to Afghanistan being questioned, a version of that same proxy war is beginning to take shape again.

Analysts argue that stabilizing Afghanistan is still possible, but it would require a long-term American commitment to rebuilding the country. It would also require intensified American diplomacy in the region, they say.

Christine Fair, an analyst at the United States Institute of Peace, a government-funded Washington-based research institute, suggests that an American diplomatic drive to ease tensions between India and Pakistan could be a key to stabilizing Afghanistan as well. "What we need," she said "is a grand bargain. You have to take a regional picture."

But time is short. There are indications that public support for a long-term American and NATO role in Afghanistan may be dropping in both the United States and Europe. Recent requests by NATO commanders that Germany and other countries eliminate restrictions on sending their troops to the country's volatile south have fallen on deaf ears. Countries have also been slow to respond to appeals for additional NATO troops in Afghanistan.

A CNN poll released last week showed increased skepticism among the American public as well. When asked, "Do you favor or oppose the U.S. war in Afghanistan?" 50 percent were in favor, and 48 percent were opposed.

That indicated a slide from the heady days in 2001 and 2002, just after the Northern Alliance had toppled the Taliban with the aid of a few American troops. Back then, 80 or 90 percent of Americans were supportive. The Taliban strategy appears to be working.

"Musharraf responsible for bloodletting in Afghanistan"

Pakhtun Sahar - ISLAMABAD, Oct 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Chairman of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) Imran Khan has said Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was responsible for all the post 9/11 troubles in Afghanistan.

In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok's Islamabad correspondent on Sunday, the cricketer-turned-politician said Musharraf was selling of the blood of Afghans.

"Musharraf is responsible for the killing of Afghans in the name of Taliban and destruction of Afghanistan," said chief of the PTI. He said the Pakistani president had allowed bases to the United States in his country against Afghanistan to prolong his dictatorship.

Lashing out at the incumbent Pakistani government for its foreign policy, Imran Khan said it was this failed policy that had disturbed Pakistan's ties with a close neighbour and brotherly Muslim country on its western border.

"How is it possible that Afghans, who lived with us like brothers for three decades, now consider us as their enemies," questioned the one time cricket legend.

Commenting on the recent visit of Pervez Musharraf and President Karzai to Washington, Imran Khan said the war of words between the two leaders revealed the chasm in Pakistan's political and diplomatic ties with Afghanistan.

Ex-ISI officials may be helping Taliban

IRNA 10/02/2006 - Pakistan's intelligence service has played no role in propping up the renegade Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday, although he said he was still investigating possible support to the rebels from retired Pakistani intelligence officials.

According to the Daily Times, asked whether Islamabad's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been helping the ousted Taliban, Musharraf answered with an emphatic "no."
"Nobody in the ISI has," the president said.

However, he added, "I have some reports that some dissidents, some people, retired people who were in the forefront in ISI during the period of 1979 to 1989, may be assisting with their links somewhere here and there."
"We are keeping a very tight watch, and we'll get a hold of them if at all that happens."
He also expressed concern that support for the Taliban may be more widespread than many observers are aware.

"They don't know the realities on (the) ground. They're not conscious of the reality. I'm seeing the extreme danger of this becoming a peoplee's movement," he said.

Pakistani spy agency under fire from all sides

Reuters 10/01/2006 - ISLAMABAD - Five years into a war on terrorism, abiding distrust of Pakistan among allies and neighbours was laid bare in the past few days through a series of accusations against its military secret service.

On Saturday, Indian police said the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), along with Lashkar-e-Taiba, branded a terrorist group by the United States, was behind bomb blasts that killed 186 people and wounded hundreds in Mumbai on July 11.

President Pervez Musharraf had already spent the latter days of a lengthy overseas trip fending off Afghan and British insinuations that members of his security apparatus were covertly supporting the Taleban insurgency raging in southern Afghanistan.

Coming just two weeks after Musharraf managed to get India to resume a peace process that New Delhi froze after the Mumbai blasts, the timing of the allegation against the ISI is bad.

The agency is well-used to being blamed, though the West had been happy to enlist its support in a covert war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s, just as it is now being used in the war on terrorism.

'Ever since I can remember, whenever there is something on, whenever a blast takes place here, or something in Afghanistan, there is the September 11, all sorts of things, so ISI is always in the eye of the storm,' said Lieutenant-General Asad Durrani, a former head of the ISI.

Keeping options open - Despite becoming a crucial ally of the West, despite making a foreign policy U-turn in 2001 to abandon support for a Taleban government hosting Al Qaeda, and despite starting peace talks with India almost three years ago, doubts remain about whether Pakistan's spies are still playing a double game.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai pointedly warned of the dangers in a remark last week in the United States that snakes cannot be trained to bite other people.

'Karzai has been making such allegations all along and India too. It is just coincidence that these latest allegations have come at the same time although they are not new,' Kamal Matinuddin, a retired general and security analyst, said.

Accused in the past of using the Taleban to extend Pakistani influence in Afghanistan, and supporting jihadi groups to run a proxy war against Indian forces in Kashmir, the ISI is suspected by many security analysts of wanting to keep those options open.

Firstly, analysts say there are doubts in the Pakistani establishment over whether India would ever cede ground in the dispute over Kashmir.

Secondly, there are doubts about Karzai's durability, coupled with fear of being encircled because of growing Indian influence in Kabul.

Pakistan has nevertheless established its credentials in the war on terrorism having arrested more than 700 Al Qaeda suspects, including several of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants.

Both the United States and Britain have thanked Pakistan for helping to foil plots. In August, a joint operation by all three countries thwarted a conspiracy to cause explosions aboard airliners bound for US cities from London.

With that to the ISI's credit, Musharraf mounted a strong defence of his secret service in the face of a leaked report commissioned by Britain's Ministry of Defence, written by a consultant with a military intelligence background.

It said Pakistani agents were aiding the Taleban. The British government distanced itself from the report saying the views were not its own -- though some British officers serving with NATO in Afghanistan have spoken of their belief insurgents are coming over from Pakistan.

'You will be brought down to your knees if Pakistan does not cooperate with you,' Musharraf told the BBC on Saturday before leaving London for home on the last leg of a three-week trip.

'Remember my words, if ISI is not with you and Pakistan is not with you, you will lose in Afghanistan.' British perceptions weren't helped by the adjournment of a terrorism trial in mid-September, when a defendant, Omar Khyam, refused to answer questions from his lawyer, claiming the ISI had visited his family in Pakistan and he feared for their safety.

Press Release, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Kabul, September 30, 2006

Afghan foreign minister Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta to pay a visit to Poland on 3 rd October 2006, and during 4 -6 October 2006, at an official invitation from the foreign minister will visit Russian Federation

The purpose of this meeting is to strengthen bilateral ties, cooperation and investment of Russian Federation in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Afghan foreign minister said, “Our foreign policy is multilateral and the national interest of Afghanistan lies in the context of this policy.”

Given the context of ties between these tow countries, this trip is a good opportunity to extend and improve relations between these two nations,

During his visit the Afghan foreign minister meets his counterpart from Russian Federation and the director of National security counsel , Afghan foreign minister is also due to deliver a speech at the Institute of international relations of the ministry of foreign affairs of Russian Federation.

Russian Federation has pledged 117 million US dollars in Tokyo, Berlin and London conferences out of which 50 million US dollars have been spent for Afghan National Army (ANA).

Afghan foreign minister during his visit from Poland will meet his counterpart and they will discuss the contributions of Poland in Afghanistan’s reconstruction. Poland is intended to increase the number of its forces to 1000 in ISAF. For the time being, there are 100 Polish soldiers in Afghanistan.

Spokesman’s office,MOFA.

Hillier admits victory in Afghanistan is elusive

Updated Fri. Sep. 29 2006 - CTV.ca News Staff

Canada's top soldier kicked off a visit to Afghanistan today by describing success in that country as a "long, slow process" due to shifting Taliban tactics.

General Rick Hillier said reconstruction efforts have been frustrating and the Taliban resistance has gained strength, but he emphasized that Canadian soldiers are learning from every encounter with the enemy.

"Did we see a resurgent Taliban this spring that has slowed some of the development, particularly in the south? Yes,'' Hillier said.

"However they've been set on their back foot recently,'' he added, referring to the recent Canadian-led NATO push, dubbed Operation Medusa, that killed hundreds of Taliban in an area west of Kandahar, according to NATO.

Hillier arrived in Afghanistan Friday aboard a Hercules C-130 transport plane to kick off a visit to southern Afghanistan. His goal is to assess how the situation has changed since he visited earlier in the year.

Hillier's somber outlook seemed to contrast with his last visit to Afghanistan, when he was enthusiastic about engaging the Taliban and pushing them out of positions of strength.

CTV's Paul Workman, reporting from Kandahar, said Hillier addressed the daily challenges faced by Canadian troops.

"He spoke of the difficulties in fighting the Taliban, an enemy that can blend into the villages, uses guerrilla tactics, suicide bombs and bombs buried on the side of the roads," Workman told CTV Newsnet.

"He said it's very difficult for Canadians to deal with that and you just can't go into the villages and start shooting indiscriminately."

Recent suicide attacks -- one by an old man on a bicycle -- have underscored how difficult it is to pick Taliban insurgents out of a crowd of civilians, Hillier said.

"You can't just go and find their positions and then go and destroy them in that position because they blend into the population," he said.

"Clearly we would never want to destroy the population, so it's a long, slow process."

More than half of Canada's 36 military deaths in Afghanistan have occurred this summer.

Defence analyst Sunil Ram told CTV Newsnet Hillier's message was partly tailored to an audience back home in Canada.

"I think that's certainly part of his agenda. The other aspect is also being physically present with his troops. I think were starting to maybe face some morale issues because soldiers are starting to wonder why exactly are we here?"

Locals support continued Afghan mission

By TODD SAELHOF, CALGARY SUN - Flag-waving Calgarians took to the steps of city hall today to back the nation's troops in war-torn Afghanistan.

Soldiers, veterans and politicians were on hand for the hour-long rally that saw about 300 people show their support for soldiers in a war drawing criticism daily.

Pte. Ryan Preston, fresh off a seven-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, was awestruck by the throng of supporters.

"It hits me and the guys over there when we see support, especially when you hear a lot of doubt and people wanting to pull us out," Preston said.

"We are making a difference - it's slow, but the people in Afghanistan will be able to walk around free like we do."

After the rally, Preston shared a special moment with Abdul Haqyar, the vice-president of Calgary's Noor Cultural Association, who heaped praise on Canadians for helping his countrymen.

"This is very important to me," said Haqyar, who's been in Canada four years and still has family in Afghanistan. "People back home are suffering - the women, the girls and the poor - but with the help of Canada, it's getting better."

Conservative party leadership candidate Ted Morton was among politicians who addressed the appreciative crowd.

"When Hitler and fascism and when Stalin and communism threatened freedom and democracy, Canada was there, and now with global terrorism threatening freedom and democracy, Canada is there - and I'm proud of it," Morton said.

"I want to thank the brave men and women who are sacrificing their lives for our freedom and the freedom of Afghanis."

Among other dignitaries on hand were Alberta Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko, Fort Calgary MLA Wayne Cao and Calgary-area MPs Art Hangar, Jason Kenney and Lee Richardson.

Signs at the rally spelled out 'Peacekeepers' and 'We love Canadian soldiers,' while one man in opposition sat peacefully at the back with signs saying 'Support our troops by bringing them home. Stop supporting George Bush's war.'

Kurtis Sanheim, a retired soldier, told stories of his peacekeeping tour of duty in Croatia, and local singing sensation Sarah Curle sang a couple of original patriotic songs, including Canadian Soldier, that tugged at the heartstrings of supporters.

The rally ended with a prayer with emphasis on taking care of soldiers overseas. Sheila Skerry and her husband saw their soldier son, Brad, return safely from assignment in Afghanistan just weeks ago.

"He's proud, and he'd go back in a moment, so it's awesome to see the support for our soldiers," Sheila said. "We know it's part of their job, and they have to do it."

U.S. military arrests former Afghan commander

Xinhua 0/02/2006, Kabul - The U.S.-led coalition forces in cooperation with Afghan National Army have taken into custody a former Jihadi or resistance commander in the northern Faryab province, a local newspaper reported Sunday.

    "Coalition forces in conjunction with Afghan troops detained Qadir Sarhozi from Gurziwan district of Faryab province on unknown reasons," Daily Afghanistan said.

    It did not say the exact date of the arrest of the former commander.     Sarhozi, who fought against former Soviet Union forces and then against Taliban in the past was a powerful commander in his region.

    Neither the coalition sources nor Afghan authorities have made any comment in this regard. An official at Afghanistan Interior Ministry said that he had no report on the subject.

    Sarhozi is the third former Jihadi commander has been taken into custody over the past couple of months. Previously the authorities detained Commander Amir Gul, a loyalist to Hekmatyar-led outlawed Islamic group the Hizb-e-Islamiin Baghlan and the Taliban's former official Gargari of Balkh provinces respectively.

Afghan government may take drug war to skies

The Associated Press - 10/01/2006 By Jim Krane - Leaders consider the problematic but effective method of crop dusting to stymie opium production

JALALABAD - With profits from this spring's record opium crop fueling a broad Taliban offensive, Afghan authorities say they are considering a once unthinkable way to deal with the scourge: spraying poppy fields with herbicide.

Afghans including President Hamid Karzai are deeply opposed to spraying the crop. After nearly three decades of war, Western science and assurances can do little to assuage their fears of chemicals being dropped from airplanes.

But U.S. officials in Kabul and Washington are pushing for it. And on Thursday the country's top drug enforcement official said he would contemplate spraying opium crops -- even with airborne crop-dusters -- if other efforts fail to cut the size of the coming year's crop.

"This year, we'll wait and see how it goes. Next year, the 2008 season, we will consider it," said Lt. Gen. Mohammed Daoud Daoud on the sidelines of an anti-poppy gathering in Jalalabad, the ancient and verdant capital of Nangahar province, once the heart of Afghanistan's poppy belt.

This year Nangahar was a success. Poppy cultivation stayed low amid a boom that saw Afghanistan produce 82 percent of the world's opium, providing for 90 percent of its heroin, according to U.S. and United Nations figures.

Opium eradication is one of the great failures of the five-year period since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. In 2000, under the Islamist Taliban government, Afghanistan produced virtually no opium.

Planting has skyrocketed since then, jumping 59 percent this year, enough to produce 6,700 tons of opium that fetched around $750 million for Afghan farmers and eventually sold for $50 billion on the street, mainly in Europe, according to a U.N. report.

Opium poppies have become Afghanistan's chief crop and economic mainstay even as Washington and Britain have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into eradication schemes and complex efforts to create markets for legal crops.

In the meantime, drug money nourishes the insurgency. In the opium-rich southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, Taliban commanders protect growers in return for a 30 to 40 percent tax, which is spent to recruit fighters, experts in the region say.

Retired U.S. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the Clinton administration drug czar, said crop dusters may be the only way to preserve Washington's project in Afghanistan, before drug profits undermine the country's elected government.

"We know exactly where these fields are. They're absolutely vulnerable to eradication. And it is immeasurably more effective to do it with an airplane," McCaffrey said by telephone from Virginia. "I've been telling the Pentagon, if you don't take on drug production you're going to get run out of Afghanistan."

But in Helmand, home to 42 percent of this year's crop, Daoud said it remains too dangerous to spray. A former mujahedeen commander, Daoud said the Taliban can down low-flying planes.

"They have rockets," the bearded general said, fingering a string of prayer beads. "We can't spray there." U.S. and U.N. experts here say eradicating the drug from this Texas-sized country will take decades.

Inside Afghanistan, with just 150,000 opium users among its 30 million people, poppy eradication is seen as an outside issue. Two speakers at the counternarcotics conference here said it was more urgent to stop people drinking wine.

"We want all drugs banned. Not only poppy," said provincial council chief Fazal Hadi Muslim Yar.

If Karzai approves herbicide, he risks losing the support of 3 million people involved in poppy growing. But without eradication, he could see his government undermined by drug-funded insurgents.

Karzai has said in the past that herbicides pose too big a risk for families and livestock, contaminating water and killing grapes, melons and vegetables grown alongside poppies. But the president approved Afghan eradication teams that used tractors to eliminate thousands of acres of poppies this year.

"Anywhere we eradicate a field, we must immediately provide the farmer with an alternative livelihood," Karzai spokesman Khaleeq Ahmad said on Saturday.

Aerial spraying is especially feared. Rumors have coursed through farm communities blaming sicknesses on secret poppy spraying, said Mohammed Nabi Hussaini, the head of Afghanistan's Poppy Eradication Program.

"There were diseases in children who ate apricots and parents said they saw helicopters nearby," Hussaini said. "But how long can we wait? The longer you wait the more it will get out of control."

McCaffrey said crop-dusting with common herbicides like Roundup was key in drug eradication programs that found success in Thailand and Peru.

Crop spraying is not the preferred option of the United Nations, but would be considered as part of a broad rural development program, U.N. spokesman Dan Norton said on Saturday.

Tens of thousands of Afghan farmers are now making crop decisions, weighing options between poppies and Afghanistan's robust vegetables and melons.

For now, the government counternarcotics campaign is friendly. Afghan government officials held a tent rally at the former winter palace in Jalalabad. With 200 turbaned elders and clerics listening, Daoud urged them to snuff out the illicit trade before it turned Afghanistan into a narco-state.

"Addiction will destroy the young generation that is Afghanistan's future," Daoud told the crowd. "Once you're addicted you're a burden to your family."

Across Afghanistan, tougher action is coming. Counternarcotics officials warned local leaders that they will be fired if cultivation rises.

Finally, Kabul officials drove the message home using the twin pillars of God and honor. Assadullah Sajid, an imam in a starched white tunic and long beard, pointed forcefully at the elders and police officers, invoking the Quran and warning them not to disgrace Nangahar. "Last year our governor was honored because we didn't cultivate," Sajid said sternly. "Let's keep that honor."

Taking on the Taliban means reckoning with the tribal codes of honour and opium trade - Sunday Herald (UK) October 1, 2006 By Trevor Royle

AMERICANS seem to have a knack for summing up anything that is deeply unpleasant in a neat way. Whenever the senior US commander in Afghanistan Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry discusses the local security situation, he usually ends by saying, “where the road ends, the Taliban begin”. Given the rickety nature of the country’s infrastructure the general’s remark is also something of an understatement, as he seems to be implying that there are precious few parts of Afghanistan where the Taliban does not have a foothold.

Yesterday’s suicide bombing in Kabul, which killed 12 people, was yet another stark reminder of the Taliban’s capacity to strike in the capital. But for the Nato forces fighting in the southern provinces, Eikenberry’s comment is also a reminder that the road also crosses the border into Pakistan’s tribal areas of north and south Waziristan, which have succumbed to a gradual and effective process of Talibanisation.

According to US defence sources there has been a serious escalation in attacks carried out by Taliban groups along the border, notably in the south-eastern areas of Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Tank.

Earlier this month president Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan promised to crack down on the Taliban by entering into a new agreement with local tribal leaders, but so far this has had little effect other than to increase tensions between him and president Hamid Karzai, his counterpart in Afghanistan.

Last week both men were in Washington, and although president George W Bush arranged a joint dinner to jolly them along the tensions between the two men were obvious. Karzai made it clear he wants the Pakistanis to do much more to address the problem of the Taliban in the tribal areas, while the besieged Musharraf angrily retorted by claiming that the Afghan leader was like “an ostrich with his head in the sand”.

Under the terms of the deal which was brokered with tribal leaders in north and south Waziristan, the Pakistani army agreed to withdraw in return for receiving co-operation in joint operations to halt the cross-border infiltration by Taliban fighters.

A new governor has also been appointed to Pakistan’s North-West Frontier province, lieutenant-general Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, and he is also responsible for running the Federally Administered Tribal Areas Authority, which controls the areas through a network of political agents. Although he is a tribal man himself and understands the motives and psyche of the local population, there are few signs that the agreement will yield any tangible results.

During the past year Taliban groups have strengthened their grip in the tribal areas through the enforcement of Sharia law and by killing off tribal elders whenever they attempt to defy their authority.

They have also established training camps for jihadists and have built on an age-old code of values which make the Taliban fighter such a determined enemy, schooled in the Pashtun tribal code of pukhtunwali, which demands that he takes vengeance for any injury or slight to his own or his tribe’s honour. Following that code is both a birthright and a sacred duty and it makes a nonsense of Musharraf’s hopes that the tribal elders will hand over suspected Taliban fighters or pass on intelligence to the Pakistanis. If they did anything that smacked of double-crossing or trading with the enemy their fate would be sealed. By tradition and history blood feuds are passed from one generation to the next and battles are usually fought to the knife, with neither side showing much mercy and certainly expecting to receive none.

The trouble is exacerbated by the fact that Musharraf is in a double bind. Following the al-Qaeda attacks on the US in 2001 he was told that he had to get on-side or face the consequences, but at the same time he has to appease his own people, who are not always tolerant of the US and Nato presence in the region.

There is compelling evidence that Pakistani security forces including the Inter Services Intelligence agency have been lax in their efforts to prevent the Talibanisation of the tribal areas and of the western city of Quetta, which has been described by Nato intelligence sources as “a centre of terrorism and the main base for the Taliban leadership”.

The money is there too. Thanks to an alliance with local opium traffickers, the Taliban leadership is prosperous and can easily afford to pay its fighters $5 US a day, a good rate of pay in Afghanistan. As Nato’s supreme commander General Jim Jones told the US Congress last week, Afghanistan is already far down the road to becoming a “narco-state”.

Turning that situation around and plugging the holes in the porous border with Pakistan will take much longer than the three years envisaged by the British government. Already some Nato commanders are estimating that it could be decades.

“We can beat them, no doubt about it,” said a senior source, “but this war’s not just about body counts, it’s mainly about providing the resources to put the country back on its feet again”.

British troops in secret truce with the Taliban

Michael Smith The Sunday Times (UK) October 1, 2006

BRITISH troops battling the Taliban are to withdraw from one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan after agreeing a secret deal with the local people.

Over the past two months British soldiers have come under sustained attack defending a remote mud-walled government outpost in the town of Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan. Eight have been killed there.

It has now been agreed the troops will quietly pull out of Musa Qala in return for the Taliban doing the same. The compound is one of four district government offices in the Helmand province that are being guarded by British troops.

Although soldiers on the ground may welcome the agreement, it is likely to raise new questions about troop deployment. Last month Sir Richard Dannatt, the new head of the British Army, warned that soldiers in Afghanistan were fighting at the limit of their capacity and could only “just” cope with the demands.

When British troops were first sent to Afghanistan it was hoped they would help kick-start the country’s reconstruction. But under pressure from President Hamid Karzai they were forced to defend Afghan government “district centres” at Musa Qala, Sangin, Nowzad and Kajaki.

The move — opposed by Lieutenant-General David Richards, the Nato commander in Afghanistan — turned the four remote British bases into what Richards called “magnets” for the Taliban. All 16 of the British soldiers killed in action in southern Afghanistan have died at Musa Qala, Sangin or Nowzad.

The soldiers risk sniper fire and full-scale assaults from experienced Taliban fighters who can then blend into the local population after each attack.

The peace deal in Musa Qala was first mooted by representatives of the town’s 2,000-strong population. About 400 people living in the immediate area of the district centre compound have been forced to evacuate their homes, most of which have been destroyed in the fighting.

Brigadier Ed Butler, the commander of the British taskforce, flew into Musa Qala 18 days ago, guarded only by his military police close-protection team, to attend a shura, or council of town elders, to negotiate a withdrawal.

Butler was taken in a convoy to the shura in the desert southeast of Musa Qala where the carefully formulated proposals were made. The British commander said that he was prepared to back a “cessation of fighting” if they could guarantee that the Taliban would also leave.

The deal — and the avoidance of the word ceasefire — allows both sides to disengage without losing face, an important aspect in the Afghan psyche. Polls suggest that 70% of the population are waiting to see whether Nato or the Taliban emerge as the dominant force before they decide which to back.

Fighting in Afghanistan traditionally takes place in the summer and there are concerns that the Taliban could simply use the “cessation of fighting” to regroup and attack again next year. But there are clear signs of the commitment of the people of Musa Qala to the deal, with one Talib who stood out against it reportedly lynched by angry locals.

“There is always a risk,” one officer said. “But if it works, it will provide a good template for the rest of Helmand. The people of Sangin are already saying they want a similar deal.”

There is frustration among many British troops that they have been unable to help on reconstruction projects because they have been involved in intense fighting. An e-mail from one officer published this weekend said: “We are not having an effect on the average Afghan.

“At the moment we are no better than the Taliban in their eyes, as all they can see is us moving into an area, blowing things up and leaving, which is very sad.”

The Ministry of Defence announced this weekend that 10 British soldiers had been seriously injured in fighting in the last few days of August, bringing the total number of troops seriously injured in the country this year to 23.

A total of 29 British servicemen have lost their lives in southern Afghanistan in the past two months, including 14 who died when their Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft crashed on September 2.

A new poll published last week revealed a lack of public confidence over the deployment of troops in Afghanistan. According to the BBC poll, 53% of people opposed the use of British troops in the region.

Ghazni retention Dam on schedule

October 1, 2006 COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER

BAGRAM, Afghanistan – More than 90 Afghans are employed to help build the retention dam in Ghazni district, Ghazni Province so that the community of the nearby city and village can control the flow of water during the heavy spring rain season.

The water retention dam is designed to dam the narrow natural waterway to the east of Route 1, near the village of Rawza.

The dam will be made of concrete and will be 70 meters in length, with a width at the base of 7 meters and 2.5 meters at the top. The total height of the dam will be 15 meters. The dam will also include two main 18- inch water pipes to allow the village to control the flow of water to the downstream side.

The cost of the project is $200,000 and is due to be completed in the middle of November 2006, just three months after the start of the project.

The project started on July 25, however, much of the work had to be redone due to the heavy rain and flooding during that month. The workers proceeded to dig the irrigation streams downstream of the dam and when the pipes arrived they were installed.

The project is 25 percent complete and is on schedule. When the dam is complete villagers will not have to worry about the rain season destroying their homes and crops because of flooding.

Iran to stretch ironstone exploration into Afghanistan - MehrNews.com

TEHRAN, Oct. 1 (MNA) – Iran Industries and Mines Ministry is prepared to extend its exploration activities to the ironstone mine in Herat region of Afghanistan, chairman of the Industries and Mines Committee at Majlis told the Persian service of IRNA on Sunday.

Geologically, Herat mine is the extension of Sangan Ironstone Mine in South Khorasan Province of Iran and the exploration projects in Iranian side could also be directed towards the Afghan part, Mohammadreza Sajjadian continued, stipulating that the talks between Iranian Embassy in Kabul and officials there have reached a consensus on this venture.

“The final decision rests with Afghan government and the approval is expected to be announced soon,” he said.

The ironstone factory in Sangan is anticipated to increase Iran’s steel production to 28 million tons per annum as envisaged in the Fourth Plan (2005-2010). The plant is at the moment capable of producing 2.6 million tons of concentrates and ironstone agglomerate annually.

Japan's new PM wants to extend Afghan coalition support

The Associated Press 10/02/2006 - TOKYO — Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday he wants to extend his country's support of coalition forces in Afghanistan by an additional year.

Japan's navy has provided fuel for coalition warships in the Indian Ocean since November, 2001, under a special anti-terrorism law set to expire on Nov. 1. It had already been extended in 2003 for two years and again for a year in 2005.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's defence and foreign affairs panel last month endorsed a plan to extend the law for another year, allowing Japan to continue refuelling U.S. and other allied naval ships in the region as part of the anti-terror effort.

The cabinet is expected to approve the extension on Oct. 6 before submitting the bill to parliament for planned enactment by the end of October.

Mr. Abe expressed his support for the extension during a session of parliament.

The Indian Ocean dispatch has been part of Tokyo's recent attempts to raise its international profile. Under former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, who stepped down last week, Japan also sent non-combat troops to southern Iraq to assist in U.S.-led reconstruction efforts.

Both operations were criticized by some in Japan as violating the nation's pacifist constitution, which prohibits the use of force in solving international disputes.

Mr. be has pledged to follow an assertive foreign policy and military role. He has voiced support for amending the constitution to join more peacekeeping missions and work more closely with U.S. forces.

Afghan restorers train in Italy

ANSA, Italy 10/02/2006 - Young team will try to repair works damaged by Taliban

Rome - Afghan art restorers are being trained in Italy to repair some of the country's cultural heritage damaged by years of civil war and Taliban rule.

"The aspiring restorers will be mainly taught how to clean and re-attach fragments of wall paintings and frescos, as well as how to consolidate the backing for mural works," the Italian Cultural Heritage Ministry said .

The young men and women will work at Rome's famed Art Restoration Institute, which has produced some of the most skilled restorers in the world. "Some of their work will be on stuccos provided by the Afghan collections in Rome's National Museum of Oriental Art," the ministry added.

The group will also polish their practical skills in situ at the Ancient Greek sites of Heraclea and Siris, near the present-day city of Policoro in the southern Italian region of Basilicata.

The Taliban devastated Afghanistan's heritage of ancient art - most famously, by demolishing colossal, 2,000-year-old Buddha statues at the town of Bamiyan - but inflicted lesser damage on more recent Islamic works.

Other works were badly damaged in the civil wars that raged through the country in the 80s and 90s. The Italian-trained restorers will get down to work as soon as they complete their course in November, organisers said. The course is the final part of a programme that first kicked into gear in 2004 .

New video shows 9/11 hijackers in Afghanistan

Sat Sep 30, 2006 - LONDON (Reuters) - A new video tape has emerged which shows two of the September 11 hijackers, including ringleader Mohammed Atta, at a hideout of Osama bin Laden's in Afghanistan, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported.

The paper said it had obtained a copy of the video through "a previously tested channel", without giving details.

It said U.S. and al Qaeda sources had verified the authenticity of the tape, which it said would be available on its Web site www.timesonline.co.uk/sundaytimes from noon (1100 GMT) on Sunday.

The paper said the video showed Egyptian-born Atta alongside another of the hijackers, Lebanese Ziad Jarrah. Jarrah piloted United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

The two men are seen laughing and joking and then apparently reading their wills to camera. There is no sound on the tape and lip-readers have failed to decipher their words, the paper said.

The Sunday Times said the footage, dated January 18, 2000, was the first to show Atta and Jarrah together, and helped fill in a gap in the chronology of Atta's life.

Until now, investigators had not known where he had been in early 2000, but the tape shows he was in Afghanistan at bin Laden's Tarnak Farm hideout, the paper said.

The footage also shows bin Laden addressing a crowd of around 100 al Qaeda members on January 8, 2000 -- 10 days before the footage of the hijackers.

Many similar video tapes have surfaced on Web sites used by Islamist militant groups since the September 11 attacks, lots of them showing the al Qaeda leader in person.

At least 36 messages have been broadcast since Arabic television station Al Jazeera aired the first statement by bin Laden in 2001. Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri are believed to be hiding in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]